Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Steve Scalise (1st District of Louisiana)
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox News’ Hannity to discuss Democrats’ ‘legislative malpractice’ for refusing to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, putting Americans’ safety at risk. Leader Scalise emphasized that House Republicans will not rest until vulnerable families, TSA workers, and the entire DHS are funded.
Click here or the image above to view Leader Scalise’s full interview.
On the Senate partially funding DHS at a time of heightened threat:“I think there are a lot of Republican senators that are having buyer’s remorse right now, as I don’t know how many of them actually knew what was in the bill at three in the morning. But we’ve looked at it, and I’ll tell you, Lawrence, there’s a number of concerns with that bill. About [over] 10% of the department is unfunded in this bill. You know what’s unfunded in this bill that they sent us? Things like human trafficking investigations, cyber investigations. These are major components. There’s almost 7,000 ICE and CBP personnel that will be defunded in this bill, at a time, by the way, of heightened national security. We’ve had threats, terrorist threats on our homeland in just the last few weeks. We’ve had violent illegals in our country kill Americans in the last week, just in the last week. This is not a time to be defunding the Department of Homeland Security, any part of it. So we’re going to pass a bill tonight to fund the entire department, send it back over to the Senate, give them an opportunity to do the right thing. We’ve got to protect American people and our homeland while it’s under threat.”On Democrats’ push for open borders as Americans pay the price:“Look, we can only control the House, Lawrence, and we have to do the right thing for the American people. The American people want to be safe. Border security was the number one issue in 2024. People expect us, and should expect us to keep the country safe, and we will. And that’s why we’re going to pass a bill. This will mark the fourth time, Lawrence, that we’ll be passing a bill in the House that funds the department properly. Now, this one’s short-term, and I know we have differences between the House and the Senate, and surely amongst Democrats who want to just have wide-open borders. Let’s remember that Democrats still want to go back to open borders when you’re seeing illegals that are violent coming into our country killing Americans. Just in the last week, 2 Americans killed at the hands of illegals, and yet they want open borders. We’re not going to do that, Lawrence. And so, however long it takes, we’re here doing our job. If senators need to come back, then that’s the right thing to do. Because we— look, if you’ve got a terrorist outside your house, you’re not just going to lock the front door and leave the back door unlocked. You want to lock both doors and the windows.”On Hakeem Jeffries previously calling to fully fund DHS:“Well, I’ll tell you, and this is where I think people are saying, you know, can’t everybody work together? Listen to their Democrat leader, Hakeem Jeffries, from just a few years ago. He said it would be legislative malpractice not to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security. Well, what’s changed from when he said that to now? Donald Trump is president. And by the way, thank God we’ve got Donald Trump keeping our border secure and finding a way to pay TSA agents when Democrats wanted to defund and have defunded TSA agents. So you’ve got a president who is doing what the American people elected him to do, but Democrats have gone off the deep end. They have lost their way as a party just because they hate this president. Well, we’re going to still keep doing our job. We have to. We do not want another September 11th, and it seems like some people have a September 10th mentality, and we can’t let that happen.”On House Republicans not settling until DHS is properly funded:“Well, I think they’re feeling the pressure, but I think what you saw at three in the morning was people just taking the easy way out, just saying, all right, what is the deal the Democrats will vote for, and let’s just do it. Well, if the Democrats will only support something that makes our country less safe, you’ve got to keep staying and working until you get it right because the American people count on us to do the right thing, not what’s politically expedient. And so what we’re going to pass tonight is, again, it’s short-term, but at least it keeps the department open. It pays everybody, TSA, and everybody else, does not hold the American people hostage, but gives us a time to work out the serious differences that we have. And hopefully by then, some of those Democrats come to their senses, and the American people chime in and say, stop with the open border madness. Americans are dying from illegals that have come here killing Americans. Again, in the last week, we’ve seen multiple murders of Americans at the hands of violent illegals, plus terrorist attacks from people that are here on our homeland. Fully fund the Department of Homeland Security. It’s got to happen.”